amd6547
Member
My father, who fought in the hedgerows at the battle of Falaise Gap, would disagree with the statement that the Germans he faced were a pitiful bunch.
I would imagine anyone who fought the Germans in France in 1944 would feel the same way. Germany used the same process to build up their army in the 1930s as they used during the war. A small core of highly experienced veterans was used to train recruits, and Germany made an effort to keep men who had fought together in the same units throughout the war. A large number of seasoned veterans were also still fighting during and after the Normandy landings, and this greatly stiffened the recruits. However, Germany was so desperate for manpower at the time that there were battalions made up of men who should have been invalided out of the Wermacht for wounds or illnesses, and units consisting of conscripts who would never have been accepted into the military for various reasons in the early years of the war. Probably the sole exception to this was the SS Divisions, which were fanatical fighters, in part due to persistent rumors the the Americans were shooting any and all SS troops they captured, and this in fact was more common than many modern historians will say.My father, who fought in the hedgerows at the battle of Falaise Gap, would disagree with the statement that the Germans he faced were a pitiful bunch.
Maybe it was because Germans certainly were NOT angels of mercy when they invaded Russia?and a lot of German soldiers, whether regular army or SS, went out of their way to surrender to us or the other Western Allies rather than the Russians.
Maybe it was because Germans certainly were NOT angels of mercy when they invaded Russia?
Enough revisionist history.
Me said:We'd drifted so very far from the original question, and quite a long ways from the focus of THR that the thread had been running on "indulgence" for a long while.
Military history is fascinating and a particular interest of mine, but we do have a purpose here and our very first rule is that all topics must be strictly focused on guns, shooting, RKBA, self-defense and a few other very closely related issues. The hows and whys and what might have beens of WWII strategy, logistics, attrition, and whether the winners get to write the history books really aren't topical. So, with regrets, it is closed.